WHAT'S NOT TO SEE? FOUCAULT ON INVISIBLE POLITICAL ECONOMY IN ADAM SMITH AND ADAM FERGUSON

In his lectures of 1978-79, published posthumously as The Birth of Biopolitics, Michel Foucault addressed versions of liberalism in which an invisible market appears immune to government intervention. Among the thinkers discussed were Adam Smith and Adam Ferguson. This essay offers critical reflections on Foucault's description of Smith as emphasizing the invisibility of the economy, as well as on Foucault's interpretation of the invisible hand and his ascription of egoism to Smith's economic agents. Foucault also appeals to Ferguson's notion of civil society to resolve incompatibilities between economic agents and the sovereign. However, Ferguson's theory of society does not provide the assistance that Foucault thinks it does. Moreover, like Smith, Ferguson holds no egoistic view of economic motivation. Nonetheless, and surprisingly, Foucault would have found enticing Ferguson's use of conjectural history, with its appeal to the unintended, contingent, and conflictual basis of social change.

Automated summary

In his lectures, Foucault examines different versions of liberalism that suggest an invisible market free from government intervention. He analyzes the ideas of Adam Smith and Adam Ferguson, critiquing Smith's emphasis on the invisibility of the economy and his attribution of egoism to economic agents. Foucault also explores Ferguson's concept of civil society but finds it lacking. However, he is intrigued by Ferguson's use of conjectural history to explain social change.